1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a backlight unit, and more particularly, to a backlight unit for a liquid crystal display capable of allowing a narrower bezel by reducing a size of a support main, and a liquid crystal display including the same.
2. Background of the Invention
Recently, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), having advantageous characteristics of being lighter and thinner and driven at lower power, and the like, are more widely used.
An LCD includes a liquid crystal panel and a backlight unit providing light to the liquid crystal panel.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a related art LCD and FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of a portion “a” in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the related art LCD 1 includes a liquid crystal panel 10 and a backlight unit 20.
The liquid crystal panel 10 includes an array substrate 11, a color filter substrate 13, and a liquid crystal layer (not shown) interposed therebetween. A predetermined alignment key 15 is formed on a portion of the array substrate 11 and not covered by the color filter substrate 13. The alignment key 15 may have a cross (+) shape.
The backlight unit 20 is disposed below the liquid crystal panel 10 and provides light to the liquid crystal panel 10. The backlight unit 20 includes a light source 31 and 33, a light guide plate 40, an optical sheet 50, a support main 60, and a bottom cover 70.
The light source 31 and 33 includes a light emitting diode (LED) 31 emitting light and a board, for example, a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) 33 on which the LED 31 is mounted.
The light guide plate 40 is disposed to be adjacent to one side of the LED 31, for example, to a light emitting unit of the LED 31, and guides light emitted from the LED 31 in a direction toward the liquid crystal panel 10.
The optical sheet 50 is disposed on the light guide plate 40, and diffuses and collects light output from an upper surface of the light guide plate 40 to the liquid crystal panel 10. The optical sheet 50 includes a diffusion sheet and one or more prism sheets.
The light source 31 and 33, the light guide plate 40, and the optical sheet 50 are supported by the support main 60 and the bottom cover 70.
The support main 60 has a quadrangular frame shape. One or more mounting portions 61 allowing the FPCB 33 of the light source 31 and 33 to be mounted thereon and maintaining spaces between the LEDs 31 are formed on one side of support main 60.
An attachment tap 35 is attached to extend from one side of the upper surface of the support main 60 to an upper surface of the board 33 and the light guide plate 40 to fix the light source 31 and 33 and the light guide plate 40.
Also, an alignment hole 65 corresponding to an alignment key 15 of the liquid crystal panel 10 as described above is formed in the support main 60. The alignment hole 65 is aligned with the alignment key 15 of the liquid crystal panel 10 and used to couple the liquid crystal panel 10 and the backlight unit 20.
In other words, the liquid crystal panel 10 and the backlight unit 20 are formed through different processes and automatically assembled to be coupled by using an assembling device (not shown). In this case, an aligning process is required in order to accurately couple the liquid crystal panel 10 and the backlight unit 20. In this case, the alignment key 15 is formed on the liquid crystal panel 10 and the alignment hole 65 is formed on the support main 60 of the backlight unit 20, and the alignment key 15 and the alignment hole 65 are aligned to thereby align and couple the liquid crystal panel 10 and the backlight unit 20.
The alignment hole 65 is formed on one side of the support main 60, for example, in a region where the mounting portion 61 is formed. In this case, in order to accurately form the alignment hole 65 and maintain rigidity of the support main 60, the width of one side of the support main 60 where the alignment hole 65 is formed is increased.
In other words, the alignment hole 65 is formed to be spaced apart from one end of the support main 60 by a predetermined distance d1, and the mounting portion 61 is formed to be spaced from the center of the alignment hole 65 by the distance d1. Accordingly, the width of one side of the support main 60 is increased by the distance d1 of the alignment hole 65, resulting in an increase the size of the support main 60.
In this manner, in the related art LCD device 1, because the width of one side of the support main 60 increases, the width of a bezel region of the LCD device 1, namely, the width D of a non-display region of the LCD device, also increased. The increase in the bezel region results in an increase in the overall size of the LCD device.